Hi.
I'm used to the stats. "Indication System" now and am mostly coping alright - which is a good thing because I never bother with Mods 😑
And I am making enjoyable progress (slowly as is my style) through the game.
Plus I've used the Journal right from the start. It's definitely useful
Thanks.
Mad

This is what I like to hear! The Journal is definitely useful. Have you killed a dragon yet?

No. I'm doing small misc. size quests for now to try and "better" myself in every way I can 😑

EDIT :

Because of health issues, I can't do the long playing sessions I always used to be able to do, Draclvr, so I know full well my progress will be sloooooooow

That's a good idea Mad.

Even though the game will level adversaries with your character, the further you get from Whiterun, the more you'll hit tougher opponents. The first dragon encounter within Whiterun Hold (related to the golden claw quest from Lucan in Riverwood) can be hard, but you'll have a bunch of guards to back you up. It's mainly staying out of the dragon's line of (actual) fire that's important. Also, know that dragons have both standard elemental attacks and ranged attacks, so distance isn't always a help. They can also melee with their wings and tails, which usually staggers your character. So using cover with ranged attacks and/or spells or just keep moving while attacking helps. The nice thing about that quest is that it will lead you to another that will give you your first "Shout" (Thu'um), which is probably one of the most useful ones. I usually try to hit that quest around levels 6-10.

Skyrim is sort of like Oblivion in that you can also try to evade enemies. Some can be outrun, others not so easily. Bears are hard to get away from at lower levels because they tend to swipe at you when you're running. A good trick is to head for an incline that's just steep enough to run up, and then lob arrows or spells down at them. They will hide, but it may give you a chance to slowly pick them off or plan a different avenue for escape. If you're being pursued by a dragon that's too much for you because you are low on health or equipment, ducking into a cave can help too. Oh yeah, and once you start coming across beasties that have a prefix of "Ice" or "Snowy" (i.e. Ice Wolf or Snowy Saber Cat) watch out. Just like Oblivion's Timberwolves, those pack a much bigger punch, especially at lower levels than their more common counterparts.

The aspect I like the most about Skyrim is the sandbox element, because I'm not much for linear gaming. Since I've been playing the game for so long, I'm not so worried about quests. I'll usually build a character type based on an idea that I have about a character's backstory that I'll dream up in my head. Then just hit the country side and see what I come across. For me it's sort of theraputic. If I can't sleep or need to releive some tension, I'll jump on and play for an hour. It's fun to try the different races and build different character types to see how they work out or how NPC's respond to them. My first couple hundred hours of gameplay was born from an effort to build a character that could take on a Legendary Dragon. I went through tons of characters, building each up to level 70 or more, only to have them flung to the side on their first encounter with said Dragon.

I hope you have fun with it.

Hi there 🙂

And thanks for all your RPG wisdom !!
However, I am very amateurish as regards RPGs, really being an Adventurer, and so I play them "absolutely" for the fun of it and don't aspire to any great heights

I do enjoy myself, of course, or I wouldn't ever buy any, and I have played several over the years AND managed to finish quite a few, to my own surprise !!

But I tend to dip in and out and can take eons to make any significant progress - which would probably drive you and other RPG professionals insane

However, I DO know where to come for serious advice when I need some.

Cheers.

Mad

Mad, just wander.

The first time I played Morrowind, back in the dark ages, I completely missed the part about there being a Main Quest. That was partly because the original Journal was awful, but it was also because I had no clue.

But I was utterly charmed by the idea that I could just go where I wanted, and the only thing holding me back in certain areas was the difficulty. That's the best way to approach these big games, in my opinion. I still do that with all of the Elder Scrolls games even now, and with the Fallout games, too.

In my current, long-running game of Fallout 4, I am at level 78 and still haven't really started the Main Quest. My baby got stolen, and...I'll get around to looking for him one of these days.

It's the journey, not the destination.

I agree with the journey. I usually try to avoid the destination as long as I can.

"But I was utterly charmed by the idea that I could just go where I wanted, and the only thing holding me back in certain areas was the difficulty. That's the best way to approach these big games, in my opinion. "

That's exactly what I do, hagatha. And I only touch on "Main Quests" when I feel like it

I think the first major RPG I finished was the original Baldur's Gate .... way back when.
But I really enjoyed it so found older ones to have a go with and also went on to newer ones later.

All good fun

EDIT :

Really enjoying myself and getting better in lots of ways every day.
But I will have to make time for improving my lock picking. I'm hopeless at it

I'm back to Days Gone as a time-filler before I get really serious about finishing Witcher 3, which I will transfer over to my new computer tonight.

Days Gone is one of those games that just slipped under the radar but is really quite excellent; I really wish they had gone ahead with the originally planned sequel, which I would have bought in a nanosecond. I've played it three times already, moving up the difficulty scale each time -- once you've completed the game you can start on a harder level with all of the gear you got in the previous game. Parts of it are quite difficult but because I know the landscape it can feel pretty zen (unless you run into a horde of 500 zombies) roaring around on a motorcycle to the next quest. I play the way I used to play Deus Ex, as a game I can go back to any number of times, playing a bit differently each time.

Right now I'm replaying Prey, the 2017 game.

For anyone who has not played, it, it's in my top 10 and I highly recommend it. It's part sneaker, part shooter, part RPG with branching character development choices. It has an intriguing mystery story line and an amazing game world. I played it three times back to back when I first got it, it's that good.

I think I played Prey 2017 twice in a row. I know I've played the original Prey game from 2006 at least 3 times. Love these games! Just don't have time for anything immersive right now.

I loved that first Prey, too. I think I went through it twice. It was very different for me at the time.

The thing I love about Prey 2017 is that you can get hopelessly lost if you venture outside. I went out to do one small quest and never did find the way back in to the Arboretum. I ended up going back in somewhere else and backtracking. Only trouble is that the Typhons respawn and I keep running out of ammo.

Yeah, that and floating around outside trying to avoid enemies and get back in! I got lost more times than once!

I've been having more trouble staying alive in this game. Needed to upgrade my guns, always the low-tech solution. And I absolutely love that Typhon power that allows you to turn into a mimic/coffee cup/ rolling oxygen tank etc. I think I'll upgrade that one all the way this time. I just realized that you can turn yourself into a working turret.

I don't think I ever changed myself into a turret, but a definitely possibility for the next playthrough!

Trouble is, I'm enjoying myself so much I haven't done the last of the early packing and now I have to scrunch it all in today.

LOL! I don't find that to necessarily be a bad thing! Sometimes your brain just NEEDS a break, scrunching be dam*ed!

Would you believe I am playing Tomb Raider 3 on my old Sony Vaio desktop computer! I'm in the jungle right now...still have the original game disk too! What's amazing is I still remember parts of the game!

Gerry

Gerry, sometimes I just want to play something easy to give my brain a rest and going back to the classicgames is the way to do that. Recently I tried to play Thief and Deus Ex GOTY but alas they no longer work properly on modern computers, so I rolled a few BG characters instead and played for a few hours. I won't finish the game, of course, but it's fun to have it sitting there on my computer and peck away at it when I'm bored.

Thief and Deus Ex GOTY both will work properly on newer computers but not without, in most cases, the use of third-party programs and a lot of tweaking - and if one can't/won't do that, unfortunately you will probably run into issues.

I can't believe that Baldur's Gate 3 is so close to its release date!

Thief and Deus Ex GOTY run but they are so dark it's impossible to play and adjusting the gamma on both the game and my computer changed nothing. I know there are tweaks out there but it seems too difficult to deal with. I have an older Dell computer that might still run them if I ever get the urge again. It's sad, though, since these are two of my favourite games of all time.

Hagatha I haven't played Thief in years. I'll have to find it in my stack of old games. Not sure if it will work...it always had "glitches" when I played it years ago.

I remember MANY years ago many of us on the old Adventure Company forums were playing Dracula The Last Sanctuary. Parts of it were also very dark and it was hard to move around. A woman and her daughter solved it by putting a heavy blanket over their heads to block out all ambient light and played that way! The picture in my head was hilarious!

Hagatha, there are also fan patches out there to fix the issue you described. Fortunately with most of these problems there are dedicated fans out there who are also good at troubleshooting and programming that are bound and determined to get around these obstacles with older games. Without them, there are quite a few older games I continue to play that would otherwise be nearly impossible to get running. My hat (if I wore one) is off to these people.

Totally agree with doffing a hat to the folks who keep the older games running. Whenever I'm sort of down, I usually throw on the first Neverwinter Nights. There's something about the narration and voicing in that game that makes me feel all warm and homey. It's amazing that you can still play coop and get mods for a 20+ year old game.